Keep your powder dry

The House voted 239-173 March 22 to repeal the 1994 ban on so-called assault firearms. President Clinton vowed to veto the measure, but it is unlikely even to reach his desk. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who has courted Second Amendment supporters by saying he would schedule a Senate vote to reverse the ban, declared hours after the House vote, "I don't think it will be up in the Senate this year." Meanwhile, Congress sent another seven-day spending bill March 21 to the White House, and the president signed it the following day. The temporary measure, the 11th since the 1996 fiscal year began Oct. 1, 1995, is necessary to keep federal government offices open, because President Clinton has repeatedly vetoed Republican proposals to balance the budget and will not come to terms with Congress on long-term spending priorities. Republican leaders hope to negotiate a compromise with Mr. Clinton, as well as among House and Senate Republicans. Separate bills passed by the House and Senate would provide a bit over $160 billion for programs dearest to President Clinton, with the Senate version being slightly more costly to taxpayers. The president wants about $8 billion more, and Republicans are insisting that any extra spending be paid for with offsetting cuts elsewhere. In a sign that Mr. Clinton may be fighting a losing battle, the most free-spending Republican liberal in the Senate, Appropriations Committee chairman Mark Hatfield, had stern words for the White House staff: "The administration must understand that Congress won't accede to its every request."

Welcoming committee

Bosnian Serbs turned over the last of Sarajevo to local Muslim-Croat leadership last week, reuniting the Bosnian capital after nearly four years of war. Meanwhile, in Croatia, Serbs threw stones at the motorcade of Madeline Albright, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and called her a fascist. She was not hurt. Former President George Bush got a better reception in Kuwait, where he received a hero's welcome during a visit last week to the country he helped free from Iraqi occupation during the 1991 Desert Storm initiative.

Bad beef

British officials on March 21 said they may have to move drastically, even slaughtering the country's entire 11-million head of beef cattle, to combat the feared spread through Europe of "mad cow" disease. Projections showed such a move could cost Britain's government more than $30 million in compensation. France, Belgium, and Germany, among other European countries, acted last week to ban imported beef, after reports by the British Health Secretary that the "mad cow" disease-bovine spongiform encephalopathy-had a possible human counterpart-Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. New British findings show that 10 youths have died from the degenerative brain disease that can take ten years to surface.

Calm after the storm

Prime Minister Shimon Peres said March 22 that he would pull Israeli troops out of Hebron, but some will still stay to protect Jewish settlers there. Mr. Peres said he wants to be sure the Palestinian Authority has full control over Islamic militants responsible for a series of suicide bomb attacks that have killed 58 Israelis. Youssef Magied al-Molqi, the Palestinian terrorist convicted of killing an American passenger during the 1985 Achille Lauro ship hijacking, was recaptured Friday in a Spanish beach resort on the Costa Del Sol after escaping from a Roman prison about three weeks ago.

Immigration crackdown

Moving on an issue that could loom large in campaign '96, the House March 21 passed sweeping legislation against illegal immigration. The bill would double the U.S. Border Patrol by adding 5,000 new agents over five years; crack down on smugglers of aliens, document forgers, and illegal aliens who overstay temporary visas; bar members of foreign terrorist organizations; and set up an 800-number in five states for employers to call to check whether job hunters were eligible to work in the United States. Before passing the omnibus bill 333-87, the House deleted most provisions that would have restricted legal immigration. On March 20, the House voted 257-163 to approve a measure giving states the power to bar the children of illegal aliens from attending public schools, and narrowly approved a requirement that certain immigrants pass standardized tests to prove they are proficient in English.

Strike out

General Motors reached a settlement with striking workers from the 3,000 members of the United Auto Workers, ending a 17-day strike at a Dayton, Ohio, plant. The strike had a devastating ripple effect, forcing GM to shut down production at 26 of its 29 North American assembly plants and send 175,800 workers home without pay.

Congressional re-tort

Faced with a likely veto, the Senate passed landmark legislation March 21 that would cap damage awards in product-liability lawsuits. The vote was a victory for President Clinton's election rival, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who had pushed hard to move the bill past legislative roadblocks and toward an expected confrontation with Mr. Clinton, who receives heavy funding from tort-oriented lawyers and has promised to veto the measure unless it is amended. The bill was approved by the Senate, 59-40. Twelve Democrats broke ranks and voted for the bill and six Republicans opposed it. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), an author of the lawsuit limitation measure who recently accused Mr. Clinton of playing election-year politics by opposing the bill, said he "can only pray that the president will sign it."

Precision counts

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 1990 census results March 20, turning back a challenge from the NAACP and local governments that stood to benefit politically from a higher count of minorities. Census figures are used to draw congressional and state election districts and to distribute federal taxpayer money. The government made an "extraordinary effort" to include minorities in the census count, the high court ruled, and the secretary of commerce was authorized to decide not to adjust the figures upward to compensate for difficult-to-find citizens.

New Era update

Thirteen organizations on March 22 announced they would return an estimated $5 million they made from investments in the bankrupt New Era Foundation, which promised to double every investor's money. Among the 13 is the University of Pennsylvania, which is returning $2.5 million it made from New Era. All of the returned money will be divided among the more than 600 creditors.

Blessed insurance

Two years after helping defeat President Clinton's sweeping proposal for government to take over the nation's free-market health care system, leaders of the nation's largest insurance association went to the White House March 21 to endorse a less sweeping bill that would guarantee access to coverage for millions of Americans. The White House is backing a bill by Sens. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would guarantee workers access to health insurance when they change or lose their jobs, even if they have a pre-existing illness. In the House, lawmakers want to add other provisions to the legislation, like medical savings accounts, that would provide market-based incentives to contain health costs.

Tough week

Heritage USA contractor Roe Messner-the current husband of the former Tammy Faye Bakker-was sentenced March 20 to more than two years in prison for bankruptcy fraud. Mr. Messner filed for bankruptcy in 1990 after accumulating about $30 million in debts to more than 300 creditors, largely due to Heritage USA's collapse. Mr. Messner is suffering from prostrate cancer, which his attorneys say he hasn't treated because he now lacks health insurance. Last week also, Tammy Faye underwent emergency surgery for colon cancer; she will also receive aggressive chemotherapy. Mrs. Messner recently quit a short stint as co-host of a L.A.-based talk show, the "Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show."

EMOTION DOESN'T SUSTAIN

The domestic partners "wedding" in San Francisco March 25 provides a good occasion to revisit the issue of homosexuals in society. Many secular Americans were understandably shocked and appalled by the news photos of this event. Many were properly disgusted at the mere thought of the sex acts that in all probability occurred afterward. But shock and disgust are emotional reactions that are not enough to sustain appropriate public policies with respect to sexual deviants. Homosexual activists obviously know this, and that's why they carry out such public demonstrations: to wear down emotional prejudice and to desensitize. Christians need to recapture their biblical argument against the practice of homosexuality and take care to avoid appealing to the remaining reservoir of societal disgust toward homosexual habits. The desensitization campaign eventually will work. Christians should instead: (1) support evangelistic ministries to AIDS patients and reform outreaches to help homosexuals leave the lifestyle; (2) argue persuasively from the Bible that homosexuality is a sin against God; and (3) point to empirical evidence of all the damage the widespread practice of homosexuality does to society. The biblical argument, of course, is a slam dunk, but we need to continue emphasizing it.

Memory lapse

Despite evidence to the contrary, Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated her claims March 21 that she had "no role" in the decision to fire the White House travel office employees and doesn't recall details of a conversation on the subject. Presidential aide David Watkins, who does recall the details, said in a memorandum released two months ago that he felt pressure from the First Lady to fire the travel office employees and there would be "hell to pay" if he didn't. Mrs. Clinton's statements, made under oath in response to questions from a House investigatory committee, were prepared by her personal attorney, David Kendall, and released simultaneously to the committee and members of the press. The response said: "Mrs. Clinton does not recall [a May 14, 1993] conversation with the same level of detail as Mr. Watkins."

The final four?

As the Dole for President Republican bandwagon rolled through the Midwest March 19 and collected sufficient delegates to assure Mr. Dole of the nomination, it was still not clear whether there will be other candidates on the general-election ballot this fall. Ross Perot said last week he'll run, as he did four years ago, if members of the Reform Party he created want it. The conservative U.S. Taxpayers party, meanwhile, wants to get on the November presidential ballot and invited Republican Pat Buchanan to head the ticket. Buchanan aides are divided over the invitation, but his campaign manager says Mr. Buchanan is committed to running as a Republican through this summer's convention.

Guilty

After escaping convictions the first time around, Lyle, 28, and Erik, 25, Menendez were convicted March 20 of first-degree murder for the 1989 slayings of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. Members of the jury this time believed the prosecution's claim that the brothers wanted their parents' fortune. The two face either the death penalty or life in prison. A jury on March 18 rejected the insanity defense and found John Salvi guilty of murdering two women at two abortion clinics in December 1994. Mr. Salvi, 24, received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Massachusetts does not have a death penalty. At the sentencing, Salvi said he wants a televised interview to discuss the case.

Bursting the bubble

After ruling little more than two years ago that it was permissible for the state of Florida to enforce a 36-foot "bubble zone" between abortion protesters and local abortion clinics, the U.S. Supreme Court last week said it would, in effect, rehear a similar "bubble zone" case involving abortion protesters and a clinic in Buffalo, N.Y. Jay Sekulow of the Virginia-based American Center for Law and Justice will represent the protesters, and hopes several justices have thought again about their earlier ruling. "These floating bubble zones so significantly restrict free speech that it isn't free speech at all," Mr. Sekulow told WORLD. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced on March 21 that the proportion of pregnancies ended by intentional abortion has dropped to its lowest level since 1977, to 334 legal abortions per 1,000 live births in 1993. Reasons for the decline cited by the CDC include: reduced abortion access, changes in contraception and in attitudes toward childbirth and abortion, and a possible drop in unintentional pregnancies.